Unlocking potential for Millennials - there's a financial app for that

#UnlockedMe #Nedbank

The Eldest is part of the Millennial generation. The generation that demands things to be uncomplicated and at their fingertips. The generation who expects more, and gets more! The Nedbank Unlocked.Me offering promises to help them in this quest. Unlocked.Me is is the result of an intensive process of consultation with young people across the country.

I wish we had this offering when she was a student. We discovered to our horror that she was paying more for her banking services than I was paying at that time. She had a student account, and you would have thought that she would pay less for transactions, but NOT. It was much much more! We were also caught in the catch-22 of getting a student loan: We had to get money to register, but they only made the money available after we supplied them with the registration papers.

A panel discussion last week at Randlords explored the expectations of the Youth from their banking institutions.

Unlocked.Me Nedbank - Randlords

The esteemed panelists were: Samke Mhlongo, founder and Chief Executive of The Next Chapter Wealth Partners; Student and Social media influencer Mihali Ndamase; Mutsa Chironga, Managing Executive for Consumer Banking at Nedbank and Rivo Mhlari, emerging entrepreneur and founder of Rikatec, a vehicle information management systems company.

Rivo Mhlari, Mihali Ndamase, Samke Mhlongo and Mutsa Chirongo
(photo The Riverbend)

 “I never advise clients to follow their passion lightly. They first have to work out how they can afford to do that,” said Samke Mhlongo. “It starts with a very practical understanding of what you need to do not to set up the income streams you will need to achieve your dreams somewhere down the line.”
“Are you just selling a product or are you helping me create wealth? If a bank gets that right, it will have a client for life,” she said.

Samke Mhlongo (photo supplied by The Riverbed)

Mihali Ndamase said that the youth had very individual definitions of what constitutes wealth. This means that banks need to become better at reading what customers want, and flexible enough to provide it.

Fellow panellist Rivo Mhlari added that given the advent of big data, companies could make highly accurate decisions based on fact.

Mutsa Chironga says that the philosophy that underpins Nedbank’s Unlocked.me offering takes these insights into account. With an initial focus on students, Mr Chironga says that Unlocked.me will be rolled out to non-students in the near future, as most young people do not have the opportunity to attend university. The big problem young people are struggling with today is how to make sure they achieve the future they envisage—what steps should they take now?—while maintaining a certain lifestyle,” he explains. “Unlocked.me provides a comprehensive solution to help them balance all these elements. As we learned from my fellow panellists here today, financial management tools and services, as well as lifestyle benefits, are just a ticket to the game. This generation has high aspirations but also recognises that today’s world is highly competitive.”

Unlocked.Me is available as an app. Most of the offerings are made possible by great partnerships with Nedbank. For example: Gradesmatch allows learners to enter their marks to obtain a view of what they qualify to study at tertiary institutions. Giraffe provides an easy way to access jobs particularly suited to this demographic, whether it’s a first-time position or a part-time gig to help fund studies. Unlocked.me will also hook account holders up with Nedbank clients to uncover mentorship opportunities. We love the "zero monthly fees" (of course), career advice, advice on starting your own business, property advice and helping with finding a dream place, discounts on travel, fashion and tech.


We wanted to test the app, but it is only possible when opening an account. It promises to be smooth and easy, but maybe it's our Generation X mindset ;-) that makes us balk at it.
Please let me know when you use the app, and if it's worth it's hype?

Samke Mhlonko made a very wise statement. We can't expect banking institutions to learn kids about finances and banking. It's the job of the parent! Financial savvy and entrepreneurship should be taught at home. Noted!  

The views from Randlords are spectacular. Thanks so much, The Riverbend and Nedbank, for the invitation.

There’s something about the city#LoveMyCity#LoveMyJoburg#JohannezburgCity#ViewFromRandlords#UnlockedMe #Nedbank https://t.co/yiN7YWaeB9 pic.twitter.com/AfD4bQia29

— Karen du Toit (@karentoittoit) April 2, 2019